Classroom technology important, but costly

If you've read the other stories in the Tuition Ignition stories, you'll notice that we've scrutinized the reasons why colleges and universities have raised tuition beyond the means of students and their families to keep up. Yet if the places are laboratories of learning, they also need to spend, too: Money needs to be put aside to remodel and innovate the classroom experience.

The huge push to incorporate technology in the classroom reaches beyond colleges or universities. And while computer labs are everywhere, it's troubling to see so little use of technology in the classroom when every other person has a smart phone these days. Kids are growing up on technology, so why not teach them with that technology?

Unfortunately, incorporating technology comes at an enormous cost. The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) recently announced that it would provide each incoming freshman an iPad. You may be thinking that is a little excessive, or an expensive marketing tool, and for many other colleges such as Seton Hall University or George Fox University it appears that way. Despite costing the university $250,000, IIT justifies the give-away by pointing to its new mobile application course, and stresses the purchase of the iPad (at $499) will not raise tuition. But if it doesn't come from a tuition increase, where will the money come from?

While "the classroom of the future" sounds wonderful, with its moving panels, lightweight movable furniture and many power outlets, remodeling classrooms represents an enormous expense. Would upgrades at state universities come from the taxpayer and/or grants from the government? I only ask because the last thing American students need is higher tuition prices and more debt.

Another easy way to gather up the cash for these technological overhauls would be to fire teachers who don't know how to use the technology being incorporated, or are just bad at using the technology at hand. The use of laptops and iPads in classrooms has received some backlash as many students have complained it is distracting, but mainly because teachers don't know how to engage students.

Perhaps you may think that "all this technology will alienate the student even further than the college professor." But keep in mind the most crucial technology schools need to implement is interactive. In order for the technology to alienate, it would have to remove the human side of the professor. Classes are not necessarily being taught over the internet -- in fact, teachers are taking their students outside of the classroom with this new technology.